Having initiated steps to ensure compliance to the court order and full utilisation of Singanallur bus stand, the task now with the authorities was to make the bus operators comply with the court order and utilise the modern bus stand on Mettupalayam Road.

Beginning March 11, authorities have commenced a drive to ensure termination of long distance buses at the Singanallur bus stand in a determined bid to decongest the city roads. The Government sanctioned construction of a mofussil bus stand at Singanallur on July 26, 1999 and the bus stand was inaugurated on June 20, 2002. The Regional Transport Authority issued orders for termination of buses at Singanallur with immediate effect.

Aggrieved by the orders of the RTA, private bus operators moved the Madras High Court by filing a writ petition. From July 5, 2002, the legal battle continued and the court ordered buses plying within the distance of 55 km to go up to Gandhipuram while the rest had to be terminated at Singanallur. Bus operators filed writ appeals finally on July 6, 2011, and the court directed the petitioners to seek relief from the respondents.

After a long-drawn battle, the Regional Transport Authority recently issued orders asking for termination of buses plying beyond 55 km distance and this covered the buses to Dharapuram, Kangeyam, Vellakoil, Dindigul, Madurai and Tiruchi from Coimbatore. Enforcement of the orders literally stopping more than 40-odd buses had commenced from March 11.

Now, the point in dispute or bone of contention is that Singanallur and Mettupalayam Road bus stands were constructed primarily with a view to decongest city roads. Bus operators, citing the Singanallur bus stand example, obtained a stay to terminate buses on the Mettupalayam Road bus stand and the buses continued to enter Gandhipuram congesting stretches such as Sivananda Colony, 100 Feet, Sathyamangalam Road and Dr.Nanjappa Road.

Applying the same yardstick, Secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause (CCC) K. Kathirmathiyon urged the Regional Transport Authority/Collector, Police Commissioner and Transport Department to ensure that buses that plied beyond 55 km distance are terminated at the Mettupalayam Road bus stand.

For example, buses on the Coimbatore - Mettupalayam sector are running for less than 55 km and they can come up to Gandhipuram, en route Mettupalayam Road bus stand on either direction. However, buses on the Coimbatore - Gudalur, Coimbatore - Udhagamandalam, Coimbatore - Coonoor and Coimbatore - Kotagiri sectors run for more than 55 km and they should be terminated at Mettupalayam.

Termination of such long-distance buses at Mettupalayam Road will substantially ease congestion in the heart of the city and also ensure that a bus stand constructed at the cost of several crores using the tax payers money is put to use, he said. If the bus operators, including the TNSTC continue to defy the court orders and official orders, the objective of shifting bus stands out of the city for the purpose of decongestion would be defeated.

Police are already hard pressed to regulate traffic snarls caused by the Ukkadam bus stand which has become a core city area and the Omni bus stand that paralyses traffic on Sathyamangalam Road.

Steps should be taken at the earliest for a comprehensive bus stand concept for decongesting the city, he added.